Overview

About Nursing Fundamentals Second Edition

Nursing Fundamentals Second Edition introduces the scope of nursing practice, various communication techniques, and caring for diverse clients. The nursing process is used as a framework for providing nursing care for the following concepts: safety, oxygenation, comfort, spiritual well-being, grief and loss, sleep and rest, mobility, nutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and elimination. Nursing care for clients with integumentary disorders and cognitive or sensory impairments is also discussed. Learning activities have been incorporated into each chapter, including case studies and NCLEX Next Generation-style questions to encourage students to develop clinical judgment while applying content to client-care situations.

This is the second edition of the Nursing Fundamentals OER nursing textbook with CC-BY 4.0 licensing. It has been developed for entry-level nursing students based on the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Fundamentals course (543-101), the 2023 NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Test Plans,^[1] and the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act.^[2]

Second Edition Updates

Here is a summary of updates made to the second edition.

Licensing/Terms of Use

This textbook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license unless otherwise indicated. This means that you are free to:

• SHARE – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  ADAPT – remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially

Under the following terms:

• Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

No Additional Restrictions – You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notice – You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

No Warranties Are Given – The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Acknowledgement of Remixed Content

Some of the content for this textbook was adapted from the following open educational resources. For specific reference information about what was used and/or changed in this adaptation, please refer to the footnotes at the bottom of each page of the book.

• Anonymous. (2024). Human relations (dias). LibreTexts: Social Sciences. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Human_Relations/Human_Relations_(Dias)
• Betts, J. G., Young, K. A., Wise, J. A., Johnson, E., Poe, B., Kruse, D. H., Korol, O., Johnson, J. E., Womble, M., & DeSaix, P. (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e. OpenStax. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/1-introduction
• Doyle, G. R., & McCutcheon, J. A. (2015). Clinical Procedures for Safer Patient Care. BC Campus. https://opentextbc.ca/clinicalskills/front-matter/introduction/
• Ernstmeyer, K,. & Christman, E. (Eds.). (2023). Nursing Pharmacology, 2e. Open RN. https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/pharmacology2e/
• Ernstmeyer, K., & Christman, E. (Eds.). (2023). Nursing Skills 2e. Open RN. https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/nursingskills/
• Fialkowski Revilla, M. K., Titchenal, A., Calabrese, A., Gibby, C., & Meinke, B. (2017).Human nutrition [deprecated]. University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Food Science and Human Nutrition Program. https://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/humannutrition
• Griffiths, H., & Keirns, N. (2015). Introduction to sociology 2E. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/1-introduction-to-sociology
• Lapum, J., St-Amant, O., Hughes, M., Petrie, P., Morrell, S., & Mistry, S. (2019). The complete subjective health assessment. Open Libary. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/healthassessment/
• Lapum, J., St-Amant, O., Hughes, M., Tan, A., Bogdan, A., Dimaranan, F., Frantzke, R., & Savicevic, N. (2019). The scholarship of writing in nursing education: 1st Canadian edition. Toronto Metropolitan University. https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/scholarlywriting/
• LibreTexts. (2024). Anatomy and physiology (boundless). LibreTexts: Medicine. https://med.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anatomy_and_Physiology/Anatomy_and_Physiology_(Boundless)
• Lowey, S. E. (2015). Nursing care at the end of life. Open Library. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/nursingcare/
• Molnar, C., & Gair, J. (2015). Concepts of Biology – 1st Canadian edition. BCcampus. Access for free at  https://opentextbc.ca/biology/
• Parker, N., Schneegurt, M., Tu, A.-­Hue T., Forster, B. M., & Lister, P. (2016). Microbiology. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/microbiology/pages/1-introduction
• Wakim, S. M., & Grewal, M. (2023).Human biology. Biology LibreTexts. https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Human_Biology/Human_Biology_(Wakim_and_Grewal)
• U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2025). Statpearls [Internet]. Statpearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430685/

Suggested Attribution Statement

Unless otherwise noted, below is a suggested attribution statement for this resource:

Ernstmeyer, K., & Christman, E. (Eds.). (2024). Nursing Fundamentals 2e. Open RN | WisTech Open. https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/nursingfundamentals/

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Acknowledgment of Support and Disclaimer

This book was developed through the WisTech Open project and supported by funds from WTCS. The first edition was funded by the U.S. Department of Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF). However, this content does not necessarily represent the policy of WTCS, and you should not assume endorsement by the state or federal government. More information about the WisTech Open project can be found at wistechopen.org.